Trial Starts For Man In Killing Of 2-year-old

The Death Of Natalie Gomez Perez Led To Upheaval And Firings At The Department Of Children & Families.

December 10, 2000|By SUSAN JACOBSON of The Sentinel Staff

KISSIMMEE -- Jury selection began last week for a man a state social worker called "a very dangerous guy." Juan De Santiago is charged with beating a girlfriend's daughter to death.

Natalie Gomez Perez, 2, died May 23, 1999, two days after De Santiago and the child's mother, Raquel Gomez, took her to Florida Hospital Kissimmee from their home at the Reef Club apartments. They initially told police that an exercise weight had fallen on the child, reports show. Eventually, Gomez said she saw De Santiago punch the girl in the stomach.

The state is seeking the death penalty.

Jury selection began Thursday and continued Friday. It was slow going as court-appointed defense attorney Bob Wesley, who was elected Orange-Osceola public defender last month, and Assistant State Attorney Linda Drane Burdick questioned potential jurors. Defense attorney Ray Goodman is working with Wesley.

In cases involving violence against children, lawyers typically ask whether prospective panelists would have difficulty listening to details of such a case and whether they could assess the facts fairly. The De Santiago case is no exception. The jury pool was questioned one by one on their feelings about child abuse and the death penalty. De Santiago is charged with first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse.

The questioning may continue Monday. The trial is scheduled to start Tuesday.

Natalie's death, along with several other Central Florida child-abuse cases that happened around the same time, led to resignations at the state Department of Children & Families all the way up to the district's top boss, Sydney McCallister, and his chief deputy, Carol DeLoach. Other workers were fired. Social workers had been contemplating removing Natalie from her home for four months before she died, but they did not act in time.

Caseworkers had received reports of violence at the home of De Santiago, 28, and Gomez, 22, and they knew he had a history of aggression and arrests, including one on a charge of beating and raping a former girlfriend who was nine months pregnant at the time. De Santiago and Gomez have a 2-year-old daughter together, and he has several other young children with other mothers. DCF began monitoring those families after Natalie's death.

One of De Santiago's ex-girlfriends obtained a restraining order against him in April 1999. In 1995, another former lover gave a statement to Flagler County authorities.

"I feel highly threatened by this man," she said. "He is extremely dangerous and would not hesitate for one minute to cause harm to any child or adult."

Kissimmee police said De Santiago flew into a rage over the color of Gomez's nail polish the night Natalie was battered. They said he hit the child when she gave him a look he did not like. The toddler was injured so severely that surgeons had to remove her spleen and part of her intestines. She languished for two days before she died.

The DCF child-abuse hotline received a call in January 1999 reporting that Natalie was often bruised and had bruises on her face. Another call came in to the hotline in late April alerting protection workers that Natalie had a black eye and blood marks behind her ear. The investigation was open when she suffered her fatal injuries. In June 1998, Gomez's family told authorities De Santiago had been beating her, but she denied the accusation and the charges were dropped.

De Santiago had previous arrests in New York and Flagler County on charges including assault with the intent to cause harm, sexual assault and aggravated assault.